A few friends and I recently had a conversation concerning casting distance, accuracy, etc. after a day on the water. It came to our attention that we all had a set of casting mechanics we used while standing, say while fishing a stream, and another set of mechanics while sitting in our tubes.

For instance, I noticed that a friend of mine uses a straight arm technique while casting from his tube, but a very standard set of mechanics while standing on the bank. Another friend seems to use his body more while standing, swaying slightly back and forth while casting. However, when casting from his tube, his body remains quite still.

For myself, my casting mechanics while standing on a bank are pretty standard; left foot forward, right elbow close to my body, right hand doesn't get much higher than my chin, or further back than slightly behind my shoulder. When hauling, the stroke seems to be fairly vertical and stops right around my waist. I try to keep the acceleration smooth.

When casting from my tube, things change a bit. My tempo is a bit quicker, my back cast tends to be on the 45, the front pretty much straight over the top. My accelerations to stop are more aggressive. My right elbow wanders away from my body about a foot and my hand drifts up around the top of my head. I stop slightly earlier on my backcast, throwing the line slightly at an upward angle behind me.

Other modifications include kicking hard on my last backcast so that I rise up a few inches, then doing a kind of ab crunch on the forward stroke (only when hauling). Also my double haul requires an adjustment, both in angle and length. I haul at about a 45 from the rod and it's shorter and quicker in acceleration than while standing, but I seem to wait a fraction of a second longer before starting the haul than while standing.

One thing I have noticed is that recently my distance and accuracy from the tube has improved to a degree that is close to what I can do from a standing position. My subjective guess is that I'm currently able to throw about 10 to 15 feet less on average from my tube than standing. For accuracy, while standing I generally can hit targets a bit bigger than basketballs from about 40 feet, while from a tube I'd have to say that the targets are about 4 ft across. But these are definite improvements over the last couple years.

So it got me to wondering if anyone else out there noticed any modifications they had made to their casting dependent on whether they were standing or sitting in a tube/pontoon/kayak whatever. Or if they consciously made modifications to try to improve either accuracy or distance while in the seated position.

I'm very curious about anything people may have tried to improve accuracy while bobbing around in a tube, as there are many days when that is my biggest obstacle to catching fish. For example, one thing I've been trying lately is casting at about a 45 degree angle to the bank, instead of perpendicular to it, which I feel helps me judge the length of line I have aerialized a bit better. I also think it gives me a bit more room for error.

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"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." ~Chuck Clark

I haven't fished from my tube in about three years, sadly, but when I did, I definitely used more of my arm when I cast. Standing on the bank, I did a much better job of keeping my elbow tucked in and just using my forearm, but from the tube I tended to pick my whole arm up, just to get the extra height off the water.

I imagine that if I were a really good caster, I shouldn't have to change anything from one scenario to the other. But I'm not.

When my wife broke her ankle last year, she was stuck in a wheelchair for 7 weeks. That didn't mean we didn't go fishing, and I pushed her along a local stream path quite often during that time. My wife tends to turn her body too much while standing, and drops the rod WAY too far on the back cast. Being in a wheelchair restricted her body motions, and her bad casting habits disappeared very quickly! She even kept her elbow bent, and not straight out and up Nazi style. Her surgery and physical therapy were an absolute success, and she's back to the old bad habits, even when we fish from our canoe.

As for myself, I'm usually playing guide when we're in our canoe, so I wouldn't know about differences. I'm certainly not casting 75 feet of line from the canoe, but that's probably because I can get quite close to the target. While standing, I do cast rather far. Yvonne's broken ankle has allowed me to see that there is much wisdom in casting further, rather than wading further.

Those are good observations about what happens when there is less room between the plane of your line and the ground or water.

When I teach casting classes here are a couple things I tell folks. When you deliver the line don't accelerate any differently than you do on a false cast. Its all the same--a nice smooth motion.

When I teach I have students start casting standing up. (We start in a grass field.) Then I have them sit in a chair to cast. From there I have them sit on the ground. Sitting on the ground is tough. Try practicing your casting sitting in a chair and it is likely your casting will improve both in the tube and from shore.

I haven't fished from a tube, but have from a canoe. When sitting in a canoe I find my accuracy is actually better, but if I miss it is usually off to the right. When standing my misses are unpredictable and follow no pattern at all.

Just from the feel of it, I would say I use more body standing up. My arm gets tired faster while sitting.

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"To go fishing is the chance to wash one's soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of sun on blue water. It brings meekness and inspiration from the decency of nature, charity toward tackle-makers, patience toward fish, a mockery of profits and egos, a quieting of hate, a rejoicing that you do not have to decide a darned thing until next week. And it is discipline in the equality of men - for all men are equal before fish."
~ Herbert Hoover

When I teach casting classes here are a couple things I tell folks. When you deliver the line don't accelerate any differently than you do on a false cast. Its all the same--a nice smooth motion.

I'll have to show this to my wife. I've told her this a zillion times, but she'll false cast perfectly, and end with a punch on the forward cast. The line either crashes short onto the water, or ends up way off target. It's wierd and I don't know what she expects to achieve with the misused power on the foward cast. When the punching gets out of control, I stand next to her and talk her through the process. She still gets surprised when the line gets torn out of her hand on a proper cast.